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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pesarattu - Moong dal dosa

If you’re from Andhra or have visited Andhra anytime, then you know this awesome dosa for sure! You can’t miss this in any of the hotels..... a hot an crispy dosa topped with finely copped onions served with chutney.... it has all the goodness and appetizing flavor of moong dal.Well, Dee who was in Hyderabad for a couple of years before marriage had this in his wish list from a long time. I too have tried this pesarattu when I’d been to Hyderabad. Being an avid fan of dosas of any kind, I had fallen for this one as well...And recently when I saw this recipe in some blog, I couldn’t resist from making it at home. As I browsed through, there were two prominent versions - one with whole moong dal and the other with split moong dal. I was confused as to which would be the best, and so tried out both the versions. And well, both of them were just slightly different and both tasted great.Here’s the recipe....

Method: Batter:• Wash and soak rice and dal in enough water for 3-4 hours or overnight (I generally soak it overnight)• Next morning, grind the soaked rice and dal with some water and other ingredients mentioned in the ‘For batter’ section in a wet grinder / mixer• Add water if necessary and grind the batter to a medium fine paste• Transfer the batter to a vessel• Add cumin seeds and mix wellDosa:• Chop onions and green chilies finely• Heat a non stick griddle/tawa• Now take a ladle of the batter and spread it on the tawa like normal dosa. Pour the batter in the middle of the tawa and quickly smear it with the back of the ladle to spread it as thin as possible• Immediately spread a couple of spoons of the chopped onion and chili roughly evenly on the spread dosa• Smear a teaspoon of oil and cover it with a plate/lid• After half a minute, open the lid• Allow it to crisp if you like it that way• Take it out of the tawa, roll it so that the onion pieces do not fall off and serve straight to the plate• Enjoy the bisi-bisi pesarattu dosa with coconut-ginger chutney

Tips n Tricks: • Ensure that the mixture is thin enough for easy spreading on the tawa• Do not compromise on the onion topping. It is that which makes this dosa even special